What to See in Rutherford - Top Sights and Attractions

City in New Jersey. East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 8,913, reflecting an increase of 197 from the 8,716 counted in the 2000 Census, which had increased by 814 from the 7,902 counted in the 1990 Census. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located 7 miles west of Midtown Manhattan.

Under the terms of an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 17, 1889, a portion of the old Union Township was incorporated under the name of Boiling Springs Township. The new township took its name from a spring in the community. On March 28, 1894, the Borough of East Rutherford was created, based on the results of a referendum held the previous day, and Boiling Springs Township was dissolved. While there was no change in its borders, the name and form of government were changed. The borough was the second formed during the "Boroughitis" phenomenon then sweeping through Bergen County, in which 26 boroughs were formed in the county in 1894 alone.

East Rutherford is the home of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, which includes Meadowlands Arena and MetLife Stadium, and was previously the location of Giants Stadium. The arena is best known as the home of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League, the former home of the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association, and for hosting college basketball, arena football, concerts, and other events. MetLife Stadium is home of the New York Giants and New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL), the New York Guardians of the XFL, and hosted Super Bowl XLVIII, which made East Rutherford the smallest city ever to host a Super Bowl. Giants Stadium, which hosted the Giants and Jets until 2009, was also the original home of the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer. East Rutherford is the only municipality with fewer than 10,000 residents to have been home to five professional sports teams simultaneously, as well as the smallest city to host any professional sports within its city limits.

The borough is also the site of American Dream, a large shopping center and entertainment complex that was originally named "Xanadu" which opened on October 25, 2019.^[1]

Museum in Rutherford, New Jersey. The Yereance–Berry House is a stone house built in the early 19th century in what is now Rutherford, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 10, 1983, and is currently home to the Meadowlands Museum.

The house, 91 Crane Avenue at the corner of Meadow Road at the edge of the New Jersey Meadowlands, was inventoried by the Historic American Buildings Survey of the Library of Congress in 1938. At that time, the house was believed to have been built in 1804 and was known variously as the John W. Berry House or the Juria Jurianson House. The Yereance name came from the Yereance family, which at one time owned much of the property in the vicinity of the house. (There is a now-decommissioned Yereance Avenue two blocks north of the house.) However, Rutherford historian Frederick Bunker, in a 1979 report to the Meadowlands Museum, indicated that there was no evidence that a Yereance had ever owned the house.

The Historic American Buildings Survey report (#6-468) said that the house was built by John W. Berry, a direct descendant of Major John Berry, who obtained land grants from Governor of New Jersey Philip Carteret in 1668. Berry had previously lived in Barbados and named his grants New Barbadoes, a name that remained in official use until 1826. Berrys Creek is also named after Major Berry.

Bunker undertook a deed search of the property at the museum's request. While Bunker was unable to determine an actual construction date, he concluded that the house was likely built in 1818 by Brant Van Blarcom and his wife, the former Getty Van Riper, a daughter of the previous landowner Jacob Van Riper, who died on or about July 8, 1807. The Van Riper homestead was near the Passaic River, across a ridge from Meadow Road. Getty Van Blarcom received the property in 1817 as the result of an orphan's court proceeding that divided Jacob's property.

William Berry, who was a direct descendant of John Berry, purchased the property in 1867 for his son Stephen and his wife Margaret. Stephen died in 1872 and Margaret died in 1882; the house was sold at auction in 1891 and was owned by Charles Smithson at the time of the Historic American Buildings Survey. By that time, a new kitchen had been built on the west side of the house, replacing a kitchen that was removed because it was in the right of way of Crane Avenue, which was officially extended east to Meadow Road in the 1930s.

The house was purchased by the Rutherford Museum (now the Meadowlands Museum) in 1974, and the museum has maintained the house in addition to commissioning research on its provenance. In 1983, the house was re-surveyed for the Bergen County Stone House Survey (#0256-1), through which it achieved its placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

The structure is composed of a brownstone foundation, with brownstone extending up to the water table and brick above it. The interior walls are brick, covered with plaster, and there are interior chimneys made of brick. The house has a gambrel roof.^[2]

Transit line. The Bergen County Line is a commuter rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The line loops off the Main Line between the Meadowlands and Glen Rock, with trains continuing in either direction along the Main Line. It is colored on NJT system maps in grey, and its symbol is a cattail, which are commonly found in the Meadowlands where the line runs.

Some trains of Metro-North Railroad's Port Jervis Line also operate over the line. The Norfolk Southern Railway provides freight service along the line via trackage rights.

As on the Main Line, trains are powered by diesel locomotives operated push-pull, consisting of Comet or MultiLevel coaches.^[3]

Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Meadowlands Arena is an inactive indoor arena located in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The arena is located on New Jersey Route 120 across the highway from MetLife Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack, next to the American Dream shopping and entertainment complex.

The arena, which opened in 1981, was originally built to accommodate the New York Nets basketball team that relocated to New Jersey. In 1982, the Colorado Rockies hockey team joined the Nets in the new building and became known as the New Jersey Devils. The Nets and Devils were joined by the Seton Hall Pirates men's collegiate basketball program in 1985.

In 2007, the Prudential Center opened in nearby Newark, to where the Devils relocated. Seton Hall, whose campus in South Orange is closer to Newark than East Rutherford, followed and moved their basketball games there. The Nets remained at the Meadowlands for three more seasons before moving to Newark, where they played two seasons before departing New Jersey for Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The men's basketball team from Fordham University played four home games during the 2010–11 season at the arena.

Following the departure of all three of its major tenants, the arena continued to host occasional non-sporting events, such as touring shows and concerts, and other local events. The state-owned facility reported losses for 2013, and was projected to have $8.5 million in losses for 2015. On January 15, 2015, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) voted to shut down Izod Center, and have Prudential Center acquire hosting rights to events scheduled for the arena over the next two years in a $2 million deal.

Since closing, the vacant arena is used as a rehearsal venue for large-scale touring concert productions as well as a sound stage for video and television productions. Since 2018, NBC has leased the venue to film prime-time drama series, including The Enemy Within and Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector. It is also home to the crime drama series The Equalizer, starring Queen Latifah.^[9]